The person who ordered the acid attack that disfigured the artistic director of Russia's illustrious Bolshoi Ballet is a leading dancer with the troupe, Pavel Dmitrichenko, Russian police said Wednesday.

The director, Sergei Filin, was coming home around midnight January 17 when an masked attacker flung concentrated acid at him on a Moscow street, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Police detained three people in connection with the attack, and said that all of them have confessed.

Russian election authorities officially registered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Monday as a candidate for president in next year's election, they announced on their website.

Putin will represent his United Russia party, the Central Election Commission said.

The move is the latest step toward Putin's reclaiming the presidency after switching to the prime minister's office because of a law barring him from serving more than two consecutive terms as president.

Russia's third-richest man, the billionaire New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, announced this month that he will run against Putin for president.

Many ordinary Russians suspect the Kremlin put Prokhorov up to it to give the impression the contest is fair.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Tuesday for a "full investigation" of irregularities in Sunday's parliamentary elections in Russia, citing "serious concern" about the vote.

Shortly after she spoke, the Central Election Commission announced that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party suffered a large loss of seats in the election.

United Russia will have 238 seats, down from more than 300 in the outgoing parliament, or Duma, Central Election Commission head Vladimir Churov announced with 99.99% of ballots counted.

United Russia polled just under 50%, preliminary results showed earlier.

The Communist party will have 92 seats, A Just Russia will have 64, and the Liberal Democrats will have 56, Churov said.

Moscow braced for opposing rallies as the results were announced, and Russian security forces were on high alert.

The opposition Other Russia party announced plans to demonstrate against the election results, while Putin's United Russia will hold a separate rally, the Interfax news agency reported.

Security forces will remain on alert until results are declared, the Interior Ministry said earlier Tuesday. Officials did not say how many extra security forces were deployed or what units they were from.

Clinton was speaking as ministers met at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose election monitors also criticized the election.

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